The deposition of tungsten films using chemical vapor deposition (CVD) techniques is an integral part of many semiconductor fabrication processes. The tungsten films may be used to produce low resistivity electrical connections in the form of horizontal interconnects, vias between adjacent metal layers, and contacts between a first metal layer and the devices on the silicon substrate. In a conventional tungsten deposition process, the wafer is heated to the process temperature in a vacuum chamber, and then a very thin portion of tungsten film, which serves as a seed or nucleation layer, is deposited. Thereafter, the remainder of the tungsten film (the bulk layer) is deposited on the nucleation layer. Conventionally, the bulk layer is formed by the reduction of tungsten hexafluoride (WF6) with hydrogen (H2) on the growing tungsten layer. The bulk layer is generally deposited more rapidly than the nucleation layer, but cannot be produced easily and reliably without first forming the nucleation layer.
CVD and other deposition methods can be used to form a thin tungsten nucleation layer. In a CVD technique, the WF6 and reducing gas (e.g., SiH4 and/or H2) are simultaneously introduced into the reaction chamber. This produces a continuous chemical reaction of mixed reactant gases that continuously forms tungsten film on the substrate surface. In a typical example, CVD nucleation layers are deposited from WF6—SiH4 with an argon carrier gas. In some instances, CVD nucleation performance is enhanced by the presence of H2 in carrier gas mixture. Note that the WF6—SiH4 reaction is much faster than the WF6—H2 reaction due to lower activation energy and greater reactivity. Other deposition methods such as atomic layer deposition (ALD) and pulsed nucleation layer (PNL) techniques may also be used to form nucleation layers.
Advancing technology requires that tungsten electrical connects be increasingly thin yet maintain very low resistance. Hence, it is critical that tungsten deposition process provide tungsten having very low resistivity. CVD-deposited bulk tungsten makes up most of the film, but how the CVD film grows depends on the nucleation film. Although CVD and other methods have been able to deposit nucleation layers, their ability to provide nucleation layers for the deposition of low resistivity tungsten in smaller features with high aspect ratios is limited. What are therefore needed are improved methods for forming a conformal nucleation layer that will lead to low resistivity tungsten films with good step coverage for small features.